Jobless Claims Drop To 5-Year Low

WASHINGTON (January 24, 2013)--The number of Americans seeking unemployment assistance fell last week to the lowest level in five years, evidence that employers are cutting fewer jobs and may step up hiring, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

The Labor Department said weekly unemployment benefit applications dropped 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000, the least since January 2008.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell to 351,750, which is also the lowest in nearly five years.

The decline may reflect the government's difficulty adjusting its numbers to account for layoffs after the holiday shopping season.

Layoffs spike in the second week of January and then plummet.

The department seeks to adjust for those trends, but the figures can still be volatile.

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